Adriano Malori (Lampre-ISD) won the stage 4 time trial of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Crevalcore. The 23-year-old Italian completed the 14.3km course in a time of 16’37”, at an average speed of 51.635kph, to finish 8 seconds faster than Luca Ascani (D'Angelo & Antenucci-Nippo) in second place; Australian Rory Sutherland (Unitedhealthcare) was third, a further second behind.
“This is one of the best days of my life, I was thrilled in this way only when I won the World title,” said Malori afterwards. “After the training, sport director Piovani and Tebaldi told me that the second part of the course would have been perfect for me, so I saved my energy in the early part of the race and then I gave my best after the intermediate [timing].
“The victory is marvellous, I think it could be a starting point in a course of improvement that will bring me, I hope, to the level of the World’s best time triallists.”
Robert Förster (UnitedHealthcare) was the first rider to set a potentially winning time; off at number 28, the German posted a time of 17'07", at an average speed of just over 50kph over the 14.3km course.
Förster’s time was to hold for more than an hour, but was finally beaten when Rubens Bertogliati (Team Type 1-Sanofi Aventis) finished in exactly 17 minutes. Federico Canuti (Colnago-CSF Inox) came within 13 seconds of the Swiss rider just a few minutes later, but cold only slot into provisional third behind Förster.
Suddenly though, as the race’s top riders began to take the start, the best time began to tumble. Laszlo Bodrogi (Team Type 1-Sanofi Aventis) went 8 seconds faster than teammate Bertogliati, then Ascani posted 16’45”.
Malori though, the 2008 under-23 World time trial champion, was on the top of his game though, and his time of 16’37” would not be approached by the remaining riders.
Sutherland was the closest, but could only finish 9 seconds short of the Italian.
With the stage apparently decided, there remained the matter of how well the riders at the top of the overall classification, who are mostly climbers, would fare against one another.
Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli) finished in a time of 16'56", putting pressure on those ahead of him; the Italian road champion’s performance saw him leapfrog several riders to move into sixth place overall. Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago Csf Inox) was one of those to lose out, posting a relatively slow 17'21".
Unsurprisingly, Venezuelan José Rujano (Androni Giocattoli) finished more than a minute slower than Malori with 17'48", which saw him slip several places down the standings.
Gianni Meersman (FDJ) managed 17'14", and Angel Vicioso (Androni Giocattoli) 17'24", but both lost out to Malori, who was steadily climbing up the standings; Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocattoli), another Venezuelan mountain man unsurprisingly could only manage 17'44" and he too slipped down the order.
Finally, one of the top riders put some pressure on the race leader, as third placed Diego Ulissi (Lampre-ISD) posted 16'54". Stefano Pirazzi’s (Colnago Csf Inox) 17'18" meant that the two riders would switch places in the classification.
Race leader Emanuele Sella (Androni Giocattoli) completed the course in 17'38", losing time to most of his rivals in the overall classification, but doing enough to take the red jersey into tomorrow’s final stage.
The big winners on the day were Malori, Sutherland and Visconti, who rose to fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.